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ST MAXIMUS (c. 58o-662)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 927 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAXIMUS (c. 58o-662)  , See also:abbot of Chrysopolis, known as " the See also:Confessor " from his orthodox zeal in the Monothelite (q.v.) controversy, or as " the See also:monk," was See also:born of See also:noble parentage at See also:Constantinople about the See also:year 580 . Educated with See also:great care, he See also:early became distinguished by his talents and acquirements, and some See also:time after the See also:accession of the See also:emperor See also:Heraclius in 610 was made his private secretary . In 63o he abandoned the See also:secular See also:life and entered the monastery of Chrysopolis (See also:Scutari), actuated, it was believed, less by any longing for the life of a recluse than by the dissatisfaction he See also:felt with the Monothelite leanings of his See also:master . The date of his promotion to the abbacy is uncertain . In 633 he was one of the party of See also:Sophronius of See also:Jerusalem (the See also:chief See also:original opponent of the See also:Monothelites) at the See also:council of See also:Alexandria; and in 645 he was again in See also:Africa, when he held in presence of the See also:governor and a number of bishops the disputation with See also:Pyrrhus, the deposed and banished See also:patriarch of Constantinople, which resulted in the (temporary) See also:conversion of his interlocutor to the Dyothelite view . In the following year several See also:African synods, held under the See also:influence of See also:Maximus, declared for orthodoxy . In 649, after the accession of See also:Martin I., he went to See also:Rome, and did much to See also:fan the zeal of the new See also:pope, who in See also:October of that year held the (first) Lateran See also:synod, by which not only the Monothelite See also:doctrine but also the moderating ecthesis of Heraclius and typus of See also:Constans II. were anathematized . About 653 Maximus, for the See also:part he had taken against the latter document especially, was apprehended (together with the pope) by See also:order of Constans and carried a prisoner to Constantinople . In 655, after repeated See also:examinations, in which he maintained his theological opinions with memorable constancy, he was banished to Byzia in See also:Thrace, and afterwards to Perberis . In 662 he was again brought to Constantinople and was condemned by a synod to be scourged, to have his See also:tongue cut out by the See also:root, and to have his right See also:hand chopped off . After this See also:sentence had been carried out he was again banished to Lazica, where he died on the 13th of See also:August 662 . He is venerated as a See also:saint both in the See also:Greek and in the Latin Churches .

Maximus was not only a See also:

leader in the Monothelite struggle but a mystic who zealously followed and advocated the See also:system of Pseudo-See also:Dionysius, while adding to it an ethical See also:element in the conception of the freedom of the will . His See also:works had considerable influence in shaping the system of See also:John Scotus See also:Erigena . The most important of the works of Maximus will be found in See also:Migne, Patrologia graeca, xc. xci., together with an See also:anonymous life; an exhaustive See also:list in Wagenmann's See also:article in vol. xii . (1903) of Hauck-See also:Herzog's Realencyklopadie where the following See also:classification is adopted : (a) exegetical, (b) scholia on the Fathers, (c) dogmatic and controversial, (d) ethical and ascetic, (e) See also:miscellaneous . The details of the disputation with Pyrrhus and of the martyrdom are given very fully and clearly in See also:Hefele's Conciliengeschichte, iii . For further literature see H . Gelzer in C . See also:Krumbacher's Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897) .

End of Article: ST MAXIMUS (c. 58o-662)
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